Salvador Santino Regilme in Social Europe: 'Tax billionaires to save democracy'
In a new Social Europe article, Salvador Santino Regilme, Associate Professor of International Relations at Leiden University, warns that the EU must radically rethink how it funds its security—before it is too late.
'Europe can no longer afford to increase military budgets at the expense of social welfare,' he writes. Raising taxes on the working and middle class will only deepen inequality and fuel far-right extremism. Instead, Regilme proposes a pan-European tax on billionaires to finance democracy and protect the social contract.
He cautions that if far-right forces consolidate power across the continent, the EU risks evolving into an authoritarian entity aligned with Trump’s America and Putin’s Russia—one rooted in gendered, racialized, and economic exclusion.
Want to know more?
Find the full article on the website of Social Europe.